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Assessment and Exams

Related information

Most, if not all of the courses you register for will be assessed. Assessment can be either coursework/in course assessment, exam or both. The coursework you will have to do will be dependant on the courses you are taking. Information about coursework should be available in your course handbook (if applicable), or by contacting the relevant Course Co-ordinator.

Here you will find information on assessment including results, resit exams, the University's marking scheme (the Common Grading Scale).

If illness or other personal circumstances have caused you to miss classes, or may have affected your performance in all or part of an assessment, you must submit written details to allow these circumstances to be taken into consideration.

Absence from Exams or Affected Exam Performance

If you believe that illness and/or other personal circumstances may have affected your performance in an examination, or you have been unable to attend an examination, you must submit details through MyAberdeen Absence reporting on the day of the exam and certainly no later than three days following the date of which you were expected to appear for the exam concerned. This is as per the University’s Policy and Procedures on Student Absence.

You should complete the relevant aspects of the Absence Form in MyAberdeen.

Absence from Classes

You must report your absence if:-

(i) You are absent for any period of more than seven consecutive days;
(ii) You are absent for a period of less than seven consecutive days but during this time they:

fail to attend an examination;

do not submit a piece of in-course assessment by the required deadline;

are unable to attend a compulsory teaching session (e.g. tutorial, laboratory or seminar).

Where illness or other good cause has impaired performance on an in-course assessment or an examination, it is not possible for the Examiners to make a judgement about the extent of the impact and thereby to determine the compensation which should be applied to the obtained grade. Rather, where the Examiners agree that illness or other good cause has impacted on performance, the following will be followed:

If the Examiners are confident that the assessments completed by the candidate provide evidence that they have met the learning outcomes of the course then, subject to at least 75% weighting of the assessments for the course having been completed, an overall grade for the course may be returned;

Where less than 75% weighting of the components of assessment for the course have been completed, the assessment should be set aside and the candidate should be given a further opportunity of assessment with this being considered to be their first attempt.

NB the decision of whether Intended Learning Outcomes have been met lies with the examiners only.

Where the Examiners do not consider the grounds presented to be sufficient good cause, the assessment should be treated in the same way as it would have been had no mitigating evidence been submitted. No partial compensation for good cause can be given.

if you are a research student you will be assessed by the submission of a thesis which is examined by two examiners (one external and one internal examiner, or two external examiners). You will also be required to take an oral examination (viva) as part of the examination process.

You need to bear in mind a number of things when submitting your thesis, such as that your computer and email accounts will be closed shortly after submission, and that you need to keep your contact details up to date on Student Hub, so that the University can contact you.

For further advice on the submission and examination process please consult the sections entitled Preparation and Submission of a Thesis, The Examination Process, Information for Research Students on Thesis Submission and Examination included in the Code of Practice.

The Code of Practice on Student Discipline, which sets out the procedures to be followed in the case of disciplinary offences by students, is available as an appendix of the Academic Quality Handbook (Appendix 5.15a).

Disciplinary offences are defined in academic and non-academic terms. Academic offences include plagiarism and cheating in an assessment or at an examination, while non-academic offences include, for instance, damaging University property.

In addition to the electronic version, you can also access the Code in hard copy on request from the:

The University acknowledges that feedback on pieces of work is important and valuable to you and that it must be clear, full and helpful.

In acknowledging that effective feedback is crucial to improving student performance and to sustaining student morale, the University has developed a Feedback Framework detailing what you can expect from the University in terms of feedback.

For information relating to the rules for the conduct of prescribed assessments and written examinations for degrees or diplomas, please refer to section 4. Rules for Candidates, of the Academic Quality Handbook.